GROUP D

SMISO MSOMI

GROUP D

Even without some of their mainstays of four years ago, France will be looking to kickstart their World Cup defence by easing past Australia, Denmark and Tunisia.

FRANCE

LE BLEUS are one of the favourites heading to Qatar as an opportunity to create history beckons. The French national team will look to join an illustrious list that includes Brazil and Italy as the only two nations to have successfully defended a World Cup title. The defending champions have had a few setbacks approaching the World Cup with influential players Paul Pogba, Ngolo Kante and Raphael Varane all being ruled out of the tournament through injury. However, that should not fool anyone as France are untouchable in terms of squad depth with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud in their ranks. They will be favourites to qualify top of the group.

AUSTRALIA

THE Socceroos took the hardest route to this World Cup as they required a playoff match against Peru, which they edged through penalties. Australia are heading for the sixth participation at the grand spectacle, having qualified for the 1974, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 editions, with Aussie legend Tim Cahill scoring one of the greatest goals in World Cup history. Head Coach Graham Arnold’s squad is predominantly made up of home-based talent and will need the expertise of starman Denis Genreau who plies his trade in Ligue 1 for Toulouse.

DENMARK

THE Danish, boosted by the return of star man Christian Eriksen (middle left) will look to build on their miraculous run in the last edition of the European Championship. Denmark drove themselves to Wembley in spite of the obstacles placed in their way after losing Eriksen through a cardiac arrest. Their run was inexplicably ended by hosts England at the semi-final stage, an indication of the kind of threat they’re bringing to France. Having already beaten France twice in the last six months in the Uefa Nations League, head coach Kasper Kjulmand will be confident of upsetting the odds once more.

TUNISIA

THE Carthage Eagles are part of the few African teams that have kept up their World Cup participation as they look to engineer a way past the group stages at the sixth time of asking. Coach Jalel Kadri has been very vocal about his ambitions to make history and qualify for the knockout stages and will look to the likes of Youssef Msakni and Wahbi Khazri to help his side achieve that. The North African nation will, however, require a much improved performance to their last major tournament as they sneaked through the group stages at Afcon 2022, only to be knocked out by Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals..